Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan, more than found redemption at the Easter weekend box office. Ditto for Warner Bros.
In a surprise upset, the movie beat fellow Warners blockbuster A Minecraft Movie and topped the chart with an estimated $45.6 million from 3,308 theaters, including Imax screens, well ahead of an expected $40 million. Based on Friday’s gross of $19.2 million, Sinners looked to open to the latter figure, but a spike in walk-up Saturday business changed the landscape.
Sinners achieved its victory after earning near-perfect reviews and stellar audience scores. Overseas, it started off with $15.4 million from select markets, for a global total of $61 million.
Not that Minecraft, now in its third weekend, is any slouch as it jumped the $700 million mark globally. Based on early weekend grosses, it appeared the record-breaking video game adaptation would stay No. 1 with $45 million. Instead, it’s on course to take in $41.3 million from 4,032 locations in a double win for Warners’ film empire (family films are always hard to model on Easter weekend because of holiday distractions).
All told, Warners was the unqualified winner of this year’s box office Easter egg hunt in commanding 64 percent of the market. To boot, Minecraft has helped push year-to-date domestic box office revenue into the black for the first time in months.
Overseas, Minecraft pulled in another huge $59 million for a global total of $720.8 million, including $344.6 million domestically and $376.2 million overseas. It’s the first film of 2025 to have a shot at jumping the $1 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales.
Sinners boasts a strong start for an R-rated, original period genre pic. Per Warners, it is the best start for an original film since pre-pandemic times, when Jordan Peele’s Us opened to $71.1 million in 2019.
All eyes were on how Coogler’s Sinners performed, since the movie was made entirely by Warner Bros. movie chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy from start to finish. If Sinners continues to impress, the duo can now boast two wins in a row after several high-profile misses that reportedly made Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav consider replacing them, even if some of those misses were inherited projects.
Please see below from Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Mike De Luca & Pam Abdy for use in your box office reporting:
“As we continue to strive to bring an array of films to moviegoers, we are thrilled to see how Ryan Coogler’s original movie Sinners, and a movie based on the fan favorite Minecraft game, have resonated with audiences in such a stellar way,” De Luca and Abdy said in a statement. “Movies have the power to transport us to worlds only seen on the big screen, and Warner Bros. Pictures remains committed to bringing singular in-theater experiences to audiences looking for bold movies, both original and those based on beloved existing properties.”
Sinners boasts the best Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of Coogler’s career at 97 percent. It was also graced with an impressive A CinemaScore from audiences and perfect scores on PostTrak. The male-skewing movie is playing to an ethnically diverse audience, with Black moviegoers making up 38 percent of ticket buyers. White moviegoers made 35 percent, followed by Latinos (18 percent), Asians (5 percent) and Native American/Other (4 percent), according to PostTrak.
Set in 1932, Sinners stars Jordan in dual roles as identical twin entrepreneurs known as Smoke and Stack. Having survived the World War I trenches and Chicago gangland, the brothers return after seven years to their segregated Mississippi Delta hometown, Clarksdale. They are flush with cash and have a truckload of liquor and a plan to open a juke joint. However, they encounter unexpected horrors.
Coogler burst onto the scene with the indie hit Fruitvale Station before going on to direct Creed and the Black Panther franchise (Jordan has appeared in all five of Coogler’s films). Sinners cost $90 million to make before marketing, a relatively hefty price tag for a genre movie (Creed‘s budget was $50 million). De Luca and Abdy also agreed to a controversial deal point that will see rights revert back to Coogler in 25 years.
Elsewhere, Angel Studios‘ Easter-themed The King of Kings is perched in third place. The animated pic about the life of Jesus earned an estimated $17.3 million from 3,535 in its second weekend for a narrow drop of 11 percent after adding 335 theaters to its count. The film, with a domestic total of $45.3 million through Sunday, boasts a coveted A+ CinemaScore and is playing best in middle America and the south.
Disney and 20th Century’s Rami Malek spy drama The Amateur is holding in fourth place with an estimated $7.2 million for a domestic total of $27.3 million (it declined 51 percent in its second weekend.) The movie is impressing overseas, and particularly in Europe, for a foreign total of $37 million and $64.3 million globally.
A24’s gritty U.S. Navy Seal drama Warfare rounded out the top five with an estimated $4.9 million from 2,670 sites for 10-day domestic total of $17.1 million after dropping 42 percent. In honor of Easter weekend, A24 discounted ticket prices for military members and their dependents. The Iraqi war pic was co-directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, a former SEAL.
April 20, 7:50 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates.
This story was originally published April 19 at 8:38 a.m.